Vietnam Today: MAIKA, the Girl from Another Galaxy,
a Workshop for K-12 Educators
Monday, May 1, 2023
6:30pm - 9:00pm (Eastern Time)
Open Nationally to All Educators
Join Pitt NCTA for MAIKA, the Girl from Another Galaxy! Join the film's director Ham Tran and NCTA master teacher Josh Foster for a look at contemporary Vietnam through the adventures of Maika (a girl from another galaxy), and the boy she meets in today’s Vietnam. This one-night workshop will include a screening of the film prior to May 1, courtesy of SCREENSHOT: ASIA at the University of Pittsburgh. Attendees will receive a complimentary copy of The Story of Vietnam: From Prehistory to the Present by Shelton Woods (a Key Issues in Asian Studies book), which will be sent out after the program.
After you register, we will send you a confirmation email with information on how to view the film and a link to access the Zoom meeting for the event.
Born in Saigon, Vietnam, film director Ham Tran immigrated to the U.S. through the Orderly Departure Program when he was eight years old. His films explore and humanize the struggles of the victims and refugees of the Vietnam War. Receiving his MFA in film and television from UCLA, Tran’s short films have received numerous honors, with his thesis film The Anniversary becoming a semi-finalist for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short. His first feature film Journey from the Fall, which was financed entirely by the Vietnamese-American community, premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and won numerous awards. In 2009 he was the recipient of the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise. His romantic comedy How to Fight in Six Inch Heels which depicts the lives of modern young Vietnamese-Americans was released in 2013.
Mr. Josh Foster (A. Mario Loiederman Middle School for the Creative and Performing Arts)
Josh Foster is Instructor of Film Studies and English Literature and has been an NCTA alumnus since 2018. He has taught and developed curricula for students ranging in age from pre-kindergarten through to the university levels. Seven of his fifteen years in education were spent teaching in Nanjing, China. Thus, he can confidently be described as possessing a level of fluency in reading, writing, and speaking Mandarin commensurate with that of a native Chinese preschooler—except with regard to his debilitating ear for tones, which should only be characterized, at best, as reprehensible. Josh serves on the NCTA Board of Advisors with the University of Pittsburgh NCTA.